Piney Grove Methodist Church

09/02/2026

We have a new bishop! Please pray for her and ask our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bless her, her family and her ministry abundantly!

08/31/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

Sometimes I read other church's "post game" summaries and I wonder if it really was as good as it reads. They remind me of the song from the "LEGO" movie, "Everything is awesome." I get why they do it, to gather interest and hype about their church, and that is not a bad thing. I truly hope that it more often than not was as good as it sounds. But I wonder.

Ironically, I don't wonder about this at all when I write these "hindsights" about my own church. Perhaps I should be more modest and use fewer superlatives, but it's hard. Why is it hard?, do you ask?
Because I have served 7 churches in 3 different countries and this really is a great church. We're not perfect, but Piney Grove is a really good place to be and worship and fellowship and "do life together", as the taglines from 1998 used to say.

This Sunday was our "God and country - Celebrate USA 250 years" Sunday. We honored our veterans and their families and thanked them for their selfless sacrifice. We pledge our allegiance to the US flag, our fidelity to God's word and our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. We sang about freedom and amber waves of grain and God's grace.
The sermon was about celebrating the Kingdom of God out of Matthew 22 and how that kingdom is different than this world and how Jesus came to invite and lead us all to the Heavenly banquet where we are seated with Him...in the heavenly realms, now spiritually and later actually. Thank you, youth director Brandon, for helping me with the illustration!

After the worship service we gathered in the the fellowship hall for a wonderful lunch. Hot dogs, hamburgers, trimmings, sweet tea (for some reason) and LOTS of people. The "meal team" did a great job and the desserts and ice-cream were yummy!

So, yes, I use superlatives to describe Sundays at Piney Grove and the reason for that is that they are true. I hope you, as I have, have found your church home with us and that you invite others to become a part of our church as well. We need one another.

I pray your week is good and that the Holy Spirit guides you clearly,
pastor Andreas

08/30/2026

The Kingdom of God

08/24/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

Today was day two of the sermon series "Nuts and bolts - everyday Christianity". The Scripture was Isaiah 6:1-4 and Ephesians 2:1-6. The topic was on "being seated with Christ in the Heavenly realms"...and that is a difficult text. Everybody knows that "we are saved by grace through faith" but the "seated" verse is the next sentence.

So what does it mean...to be seated with Christ right now in the Heavebnly realms?

First of all, it's not exceedingly clear. We have to divide it into two questions: how? and what does it mean?

The "how?" is tricky. Scripture gives us, at least, two explanations. One is the church/Christians as the body of Christ, who is the head. Christ is the head of that body, we are the bodyparts, and since Christ is in Heaven right now, we are connected to Him as His body.
The second one is Jesus being the "new/second Adam" and when He ascended into Heaven He changed the curse from Adam and Eve's fall and original sin, into His own life. As people from the very beginning have (somehow) been connected to Adam's Original sin, so believers are now connected to Christ and His new life in Heaven, granted to us through Him. That's the "in Christ" part.

The "What does all this mean?" is less tricky but will still take some time to understand. Today I mentioned that it means, at least, two things:
1. That Jesus and/or the Father is not far. They are right close by, no matter what you and I do. We are actually seated/with Christ where He is...and He is right by the Father. He is interceding right now for you and that should give you hope...and a sense of presence, of being in the presence of God.
2. You don't have to worry about getting "into" Heaven. If you believe in Jesus, then you have His Spirit in you and therefore He is in you and you in Him (John 17)...and He is already in Heaven.

There is so much more to this text, and I feel like I only scratched the surface of what it means. I sometimes wonder if this verse is like a master key of verses, unlocking the meaning behind many other tricky verses.
Being born again into the kingdom of His light (Col. 1:12)
You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, (Heb. 12:23)

It is a verse and a sermon I hope will linger in your mind and uplift your spirit.

I pray that Jesus will encourage you by enlightening you of where your spirit is, while you are walking this earth. It should make a big difference and should be a foundational "nut and bolt" of how your faith works in your everyday life.

In Christ,
your pastor

08/23/2026

Nuts & Bolts, everyday Christianity

08/19/2026

The Global Methodist Church has launched a very interesting study, or teaching series, called "Methodist Roots". Here's the blurb:

"In Methodist Roots, a special teaching series with our Assembly of Bishops, you’ll discover the history of Methodism and understand how key features of the faith influence the church today. Watch the video below and download the study guide to participate in weekly lessons."

You can find the video and study guide here:
https://www.globalmethodist.org/methodist-roots?fbclid=IwY2xjawTyozxwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMW9OcFZyOTFvQ1ppa1gwVzZzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeQzAZWwCRzdV4va5LE4XYCKGJupiUa9ch9AKnaQM9_2eCNqpwD2O-eA6KM0Y_aem_bNwA_l2FtiOwo140rMOM4A

In Methodist Roots, a special teaching series with our Assembly of Bishops, you’ll discover the history of Methodism and understand how key features of the faith influence the church today. Watch the video below and download the study guide to participate in weekly lessons.

08/17/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

This was a normal Sunday at Piney Grove, which means it was a good Sunday. It was the start of a new (and fairly short) sermon series called "Nuts and bolts", a series intended to highlight and preach Scripture that discusses how to live our Christian walk in everyday life.

The message today was focused on combating that vicious enemy called "indifference", so clearly outlined in Ecclesiates 3, by using the antidote of "seeking and holding on to our Beloved/Jesus" found in Song of Songs 3.

Both books fit neatly into the category of allegory, meaning that they speak of something that means something else, sort of like a parable. Often we are not entirely comfortable with allegory, feeling like it is finding messages in the text that aren't there. Making stuff up or avoiding hard truths.
That isn't the case since we are always to interpret a text according to its kind and these books are more poetry than narrative. It is almost always easy to spot whih is which, by the way.

So, when faced with a faith that is looking more and more like an opinion and not a relationship, bordering on indifferent and thus making our daily life worse, our solution should be to seek the Lord, find the Lord and hold on to the Lord...because a life of joy in the Lord and loving the Lord is the best medicine for our daily walk with Jesus.

It was a good day to be Piney Grove,
pastor Andreas

08/16/2026

.

08/12/2026

A short sermon series is coming to Piney Grove Methodist, "Nuts and bolts - everyday Christianity". As summer slowly gives way to fall, we've heard about the Scriptures talking about how important and essential it is to "Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind and strength" and "Love thy neighbor as thyself"...and we've been given practical applications/tools to do it. If we don't do these things, Jesus says, we will not inherit eternal life. It's not a game.

Now we need to take those lessons and apply them to our normal, everyday lives. What does it look like in the middle of grocery runs, watching TV and everything else we do? Let's find out together.

First out is the topic "Loving Jesus and neighbor while doing the most boring thing on earth"

08/11/2026

The North Carolina conference of the Global Methodist church is offering two classes for laypeople (everyone) this fall, CLM 101: Wesleyan Spiritual Formation on ZOOM, starting September 8th, and Exploring the Gospels, also on ZOOM, starting on September 9.

These classes are for anyone interested in learning more about how we understand spiritual formation (becoming and making disciples) as well as how we understand the gospels. The classes are part of the Certified Lay Minister program, which means that they would count towards that certificate for those interested in that path.

Please contact pastor Andreas if you are interested in either the class or what it means to be a certified Lay minister.